Photodisintegration of helium-4 into proton and triton

Abstract

The 4He(γ,pt) reaction has been measured at Eγ = 167 - 209 MeV, using the tagged bremsstrahlung photon beam of the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory (SAL). Cross sections were obtained for the four centre-of-mass proton angles 87°, 104°, 120° and 137°. The experimental apparatus consisted of a liquid helium target and two arms of plastic scintillator ΔE-E detectors, arranged on opposite sides of the target. Coincident hits in both detector arms were required to generate a trigger. In order to quantify the low detection efficiency for tritons, the experiment was simulated by using the GEANT detector simulation system. The extracted cross sections were compared to previous measurements.